


It's A Woman's World

by Huntress79



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23231500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: In theory, defecting to SHIELD was just a change in commands. In real life, it meant overcoming obstacles on every turn - and building friendships with the women she met along the way.
Relationships: Maria Hill & Natasha Romanov, Melinda May & Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts & Natasha Romanov
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2020





	It's A Woman's World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> Written for the Worldbuilding Exchange and flipflop_diva. Starts pre-Avengers (2012), and follows the rest of canon rather loosely. Hope you like it! Enjoy!

*********************

Defecting to SHIELD only had a nice ring to it on paper, so to speak.

In reality, it was more like a constant uphill battle than anything else.

Not only against the whole bureaucratic schtick, with all the different tests and forms and whatnot, or the many, many male agents thinking they were, in any way, qualified to be a judge of her mental status just because they were of the other gender.

Natasha’s biggest fight, tough, lay in the female agents. Most of them gave her a wide berth, on the few occasions she was allowed to leave her assigned room and go straight to wherever she was requested, an unusual mix of fear and curiosity in their eyes. Did they really think she would turn into a mindless killer at the drop of a hat?

For the first month, she was, more or less, okay with that. She never really had been the one to find friends easily, and being trained by the most elite assassins in every aspect of the world of espionage didn’t help either.

But then, Clint, one of the few male agents that didn’t categorize her at all, was reassigned and had to leave for a mission. And all of a sudden, Natasha felt like she was suffocating in her temporary quarters.

Still, they requested her to do this test and that one, not realizing what was going on with her psyche at all. Natasha fell back to old patterns, wearing the familiar mask of indifference almost 24/7, but deep down, the first tendrils of regretting the decision to defect reared their ugly head.

Until one day, a knock on the door of her quarters surprised Natasha, even though she didn’t show it outwards. Usually, the agents that came fetching her varied, and put no real effort into even being polite. Most of them gave the door a short knock, and before she even had the chance to reply, came striding into the room and told her to follow them to meet yet another “specialist”.

This time though, whoever was on the other side of the door waited for her to call out. And after a minute or two of consideration, Natasha did so.

“Come in!”

She didn’t move from her usual spot on the bed, and not for the first time, the darker side of her wished for her trusty knife, but all her weapons were confiscated upon her surrender.

A tall, African American man strode in her room, all decked out in black, followed by a rather petite Asian American woman, though Natasha could see that the woman was well-trained in one kind of fighting technique or another.

“Miss Romanov?” the man asked, his only eye locking in on her. “I’m Director Nick Fury.”

“Nice to meet you, Director Fury. Have you run out of low level agents to come and fetch me?”

“No, Miss Romanov, and there will be no further tests at all.” He grabbed the chair from the small desk and turned it over to the end of the bed before sitting down. “I’ve come to the decision that we have tested you enough for at least one lifetime, if not two,” at that, Natasha could see a fleeting smile passing over the woman’s face, “and that we would be better off with having you working for us instead.”

“You’re offering me a job?” Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, he does,” the woman finally spoke up, also coming closer to the bed with an outstretched hand. “I’m Agent Melinda May, and I’m here to ‘teach’ you the inner works of being a SHIELD agent.”

Natasha took the offered hand, and was pleasantly surprised that the other woman had quite a strong handshake.

*********************

In no time at all, Natasha had the so-called inner works internalized, and soon enough, Nick Fury was handing her not only her very first set of credentials ever, but also a catsuit similar to the one she saw Melinda wearing almost all the time, and, to her visible surprise, a set of batons.

“It’s like your old set, Agent Romanov, but with some enhancements,” Nick told her. “Consider it a belated welcoming gift.”

Of course, Natasha was grateful for it, but what counted way more to her was that she now had made some friends. Next to Clint, who was grinning like an idiot at the ceremony, and Phil, who had become her not-so-secret supporter and her “partner in crime” when it came to getting their hands on any kind of sweets the cafeteria had to offer (and then some from the shops around), Melinda had become a true friend to her.

While they had started out on a pure professional base, it definitely became more than that when Melinda took Natasha to an observation. On their way to their target, Melinda openly admitted that if she had to spend one more night alone in the car, she was going to riot, and that it wouldn’t end pleasant for anyone involved. The fact that she said it all with a slightly crooked smile made it even more hilarious, and so, Natasha did a thing she thought was impossible for her - she laughed.

Apparently, this broke the ice between the two women, and when the next morning dawned on Washington DC, they not only had demolished most of the food and drink they had brought along. Melinda and Natasha also were on the first few meters of the road to friendship, having shared tidbits about each other over the course of the night.

*********************

Time went on, and while both women went to be on different teams, they made it an unofficial rule to meet at least once every ten days or so to do, as Natasha explained to Clint once, their personal “update briefing”, which usually included either a day spa or a coffee shop, or on one very memorable occasion, a trip to the Mall of America in Minnesota, since they both were, more or less, in the greater area.

If Natasha was honest, she always was looking forward to these little adventures. No matter what she and Melinda ended up to do, she felt less like an agent and more like a regular woman, who had a good job and good friends.

Then, Captain America was found, and while Strike Team Delta’s missions continued undisturbed of it, the ripple effect caused by it was felt in all divisions at SHIELD. Not a few agents were reassigned, new teams were formed, missions put on hold or completely aborted.

At long last, it also happened to her team. Clint was reassigned to New Mexico, Natasha went undercover at Stark Industries to do an evaluation of Tony, and Phil was left to commute between these two locations, along with some other places he wasn’t allowed to speak about.

Melinda also got relocated, and for the first time in years, Natasha feared that she would lose all her friends in a heartbeat. But once again, life had a nice surprise in store for the redhead.

*********************

When Natasha first met Pepper Potts, she knew everything that was there to know, down to the other woman’s clothes and shoe size. And yet, none of this information prepared her in the slightest for the effect the CEO had on other people when she was in the same room.

Pepper was, long story short, a force to be reckoned with. As her personal assistant, Natasha saw her both handling a board meeting full of narrow-minded men and Tony at his most eccentric with an efficiency that not even the Red Room ever could have teached anyone.

But Natasha also saw the softer side of the CEO. Like the one time after such a board meeting, where they, more or less, locked themselves in Pepper’s office, ordered Thai and watched random videos. Or when they went shopping dresses for the Stark Expo, and Pepper surprised her with really listening to Natasha’s suggestions, something that she didn’t really expected to happen.

And even more surprising to Natasha was the fact that after she was back at SHIELD, Pepper kept in touch with her, telling her that whenever she would be either in New York or Los Angeles, she should give her a call and Pepper would make sure to meet up with her for some quality time.

After the Battle of New York, when Natasha did her best to keep it all together, Pepper actively sought her out. As it turned out, the other woman was in a similar situation - both had to watch the man they’ve come to love dealing with trauma, and while Tony locked himself up in his lab, Clint went back to wherever Fury had taken Laura, Cooper and toddler Lila after Loki had kidnapped and brainwashed him. On top of that, they both had to come to terms with the death of Phil Coulson.

But, as the old saying goes, every dark day has a silver lining, and so, the friendship between her and Pepper reached new heights. For the very first time in her life, Natasha didn’t feel like an outsider, felt really “normal”, however one would define it.

*********************

Almost at the same time, Maria Hill tried her best to fill out the gap that Phil Coulson had left behind. Sure, she was just as efficient as an agent as Phil was, but still, some of the other agents gave her a hard time, didn’t accept her as easily as she wanted it to be. And so, in a momentarily fit of desperation, she sought out Natasha, given that she was last member of Strike Team Delta remaining at SHIELD at that time.

Washington, and especially the top of SHIELD, pulled some serious moves after the Battle of New York, and so Maria and Natasha were faced with running missions all around the globe - which brought along some serious amount of time spent together, either in hotel rooms, vans, or planes.

During these times, Natasha once again learned a lot about the other woman, saw new sides she never would have expected to see. Like that while Maria was all serious business most of the time, she not only had quite a dry humor, but also a serious “weakness” for both dark Swiss Chocolate and leather boots. That she was, as she said herself, an “army brat” that never had backed down from a challenge. Or that Maria only settled down when she joined SHIELD.

*********************

The collapse of SHIELD from the inside out left them both reeling, and while Natasha went off the grid to recollect herself, Maria managed to get a job with Stark Industries. Natasha came back, once again to a slightly new order. And apparently to a new blossomed friendship.

Pepper and Maria were, when she met up with them for a coffee, on the proverbial fast lane to friendship. On one hand, Natasha was happy for them, on the other hand, she was afraid that she once again would end up alone, left behind by the people she thought she was friends with.

But the other women surprised her again, tagging her along to pretty much everything they did, and soon enough, people around them all but snapped to attention whenever any combo of these three would enter a room. More than once, Natasha had to bite her tongue at seeing people scrambling to look being hard-working when faced with either Pepper or Maria. Tony even went as far as giving them the nickname “the terrible three”, while Thor told her that they were the ladies version of his own Warrior Three.

*********************

The End

*********************


End file.
